Abstract
In conventional Muslim societies, fertility occurs within the marital union. Therefore, fertility outcomes depend on females' age at first marriage (AFM). The present study explores the pattern of AFM in Pakistan, analyses of which are scarce in the literature. We aim to identify the factors associated with the AFM among currently married women in Pakistan. Demographic factors like birth cohort, and socioeconomic and cultural factors such as province and place of residence, education level, whether or not a woman had ever worked before marriage, ethnicity, and husband's education were studied to explore the pattern of female AFM. Data were taken from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Surveys (PDHSs) of 2012-13 and 2017-18, and a comparison was made with the findings from the earlier PDHSs of 1990-91 and 2006-07. The analysis concentrates on women born between 1941 and 1992, aged between 25 and 49 years during the data collection periods. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess the difference between the mean AFM for different sub-groups of the population. To identify the covariates that are associated with AFM multiple linear regression models were estimated. We observed a gradually increasing trend in female AFM over time among women born after 1950. The ANOVA results revealed that birth cohort, province, and place of residence, female education level, whether or not a woman had ever worked before marriage, ethnicity, and husband's education were significantly associated with AFM (p-values < 0.05). In a multiple regression model, we found that the birth cohort significantly affects the AFM (p-value < 0.05). Having worked before marriage is associated with a statistically significant one-year rise in the AFM. Interestingly, all other ethnic groups have lower AFM compared with women whose mother language was Punjabi. Education has a highly significant effect on the AFM: the regression results revealed that uneducated females have a mean AFM 4 to 5 years lower than highly educated women. The results also revealed that educated men marry older women as compared to uneducated men. We conclude that the education of females and even males in Pakistan could lead to a rise in the female AFM.
Highlights
IntroductionMarriage marks the onset of the socially acceptable time for childbearing
In conventional Muslim societies like Pakistan, fertility occurs after marriage
Results are based on the analysis of currently married women born in the periods 1941–65 (PDHS 1990–91), 1957–1981 (PDHS 2006–07), 1963–87 (PDHS 2012–13), and 1968–92 (PDHS 2017–18)
Summary
Marriage marks the onset of the socially acceptable time for childbearing. It is a well-known fact that women who marry early will have, on average, a longer period of exposure to the risk of pregnancy, often leading to higher fertility. The female age at first marriage (AFM) is a principal determinant of the number of births a woman will have. Previous work has shown that societies with later AFM have experienced decreased fertility rates [1–3] while, in traditional populations in Asia and Africa, where the AFM is younger, high levels of fertility have been observed [4–8]. Early female marriage will directly influence the fertility rate of the country leading to population growth. Global statistics show that South Asia has the largest number of child brides as about 285 million girls marry before their 18th birthday [11]
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